Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/202

156 at once order and command peace. I say, I am perfectly sure of this, because the rulers of the of theof the [sic] countries now at war, unless they are absolute incurable lunatics or demons, which everybody must admit that they are not,-no, not even, I will venture to say here, the most slandered man now in Europe, the Emperor of Germany,-they, the rulers of the countries now at war, must see that for them together to continue to spend nine million pounds sterling of the blood and sweat-earned money of their people everyday in order to slaughter the lives of thousands of innocent men and to destroy the homes and happiness of thousands of innocent women, is really nothing but infernal madness. The reason why the rulers, soldiers and diplomats of the countries now at war cannot see this, is because they feel themselves helpless; helpless before the panic of the mob,-the panic of the crowd of plain men and women; in fact, as I said because the panic of the crowd,-the panic of the mob has seized and paralysed their brains. I say therefore the first thing to be done, if the present actual situation now in Europe is to be saved, is to rescue the rulers, soldiers and diplomats of the countries now at war from the panic of the mob,-the panic of the crowd of plain men and women by giving them power.

The tragic hoplessnesshopelessness [sic] of the situation now in Europe, I want to say here further, lies not only in the helplessness of the rulers, soldiers and diplomats, but also in the helplessness of everwbodyeverybody [sic] in the